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By Juliette Collen PARIS, Feb 7, 2024 (AFP) – Saturn’s small moon Mimas seems an unlikely suspect in the hunt for life in Earth’s backyard — it is probably best known for looking like the “Death Star” in the Star Wars films. But scientists said on Wednesday that underneath the unassuming moon’s icy shell is a vast hidden ocean that has many of the ingredients necessary to host primitive alien life. Mimas is the latest […]
by Juliette COLLEN PARIS, France (AFP) — The solar system’s two biggest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, came within planetary kissing range in Monday’s evening sky, an intimacy that will not occur again until 2080. This “great conjunction”, as it is known to astronomers, occurred fortuitously on the winter solstice for those in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of summer in the global south. The two planets were, in fact, more than 730 million kilometers […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Nestled between Saturn’s rings are a collection of mini-moons that NASA’s Cassini spacecraft skimmed past in 2017. On Thursday, for the first time, astronomers and scientists are detailing their findings of the moons in the US journal Science. Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora and Epimetheus each measure between eight and 116 kilometers (five to 72 miles) in diameter. They are either round, shaped like flying saucers or resemble potatoes. They are […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Saturn’s rings are younger than scientists thought and appeared within the last 10 to 100 million years, according to research published Thursday based on findings from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The sixth planet from the Sun formed about 4.5 billion years ago, along with the rest of the planets in our solar system, and spent the bulk of its existence without the characteristic rings it is known for today. Astronomers have […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — NASA on Wednesday announced two finalists for billion-dollar robotic missions — one to explore a comet and another Saturn’s moon Titan — with a launch by the winner planned in the 2020s. “These are tantalizing investigations that seek to answer some of the biggest questions in our solar system today,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, and is seen as one […]
by Jean-Louis Santini Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The National Aeronautics Space Administration’s Cassini probe is counting its final hours before one last plunge into Saturn on Friday that will cap a fruitful 13-year mission that greatly expanded knowledge about the gas giant. While orbiting Saturn nearly 300 times, Cassini made major discoveries, such as the liquid methane seas of the planet’s giant moon Titan and the sprawling subsurface ocean of Enceladus, a […]
by Jean-Louis SANTINI / Maggy DONALDSON Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An ice-encrusted moon orbiting Saturn appears to have the conditions necessary for life, NASA announced Thursday, unveiling new findings made by its unmanned Cassini spacecraft. Cassini has detected hydrogen molecules in vapor plumes emanating from cracks in the surface of Enceladus, a small ocean moon coated in a thick layer of ice, the US space agency said. The plumes have led […]
Reuters –National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists gathered on Tuesday (April 4) to help usher in the final chapter of the spacecraft Cassini before it begins its “grand finale” on April 26 when it will descend to Saturn. The spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn since 2004, will make a series of dives through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its rings before crashing into the the solar system’s second largest planet. It will be the […]
Reuters – In the latest image released by NASA on Monday (April 4), ‘a half-lit’ Saturn sits askew as the planet’s moon Dione (698 miles or 1,123 kilometers across) looks on from lower left,’ Nasa said. The picture was taken using the Cassini spacecraft wide angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million kilometers), NASA said. “The terminator, which separates night from day on Saturn, is also askew, owing […]
